Letter: Trump’s sudden patriotism smacks of hypocrisy
Donald Trump’s diatribe against NFL players kneeling during the national anthem is the height of hypocrisy. Trump recently pardoned Joe Arpaio, guilty of criminal contempt for violating the Fourth and 14th amendments to the Constitution. Arpaio trampled the significance of our flag in the desert sands of his Arizona “concentration camps.”
As appalling as Trump’s pardon of Arpaio is, the likelihood that Trump conspired with Russia to swing the 2016 election his way is a traitorous repudiation of the very foundations upon which our Republic is based, and over which our flag flies.
I stand for the national anthem. I proudly fly my flag. My respect for the flag, inculcated in me over my 20 years of military service, is based on what the flag stands for: the values, beliefs and behaviors that we share as Americans. One of those values is an abiding respect for the Constitution, under which “the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition for a redress of grievances” is protected.
Where was Donald Trump when the American flag flew over the battlefields of Vietnam? On the sidelines. Go there now, Mr. Trump, and hear the petition of the aggrieved.
Richard Badalamente, Kennewick
This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Letter: Trump’s sudden patriotism smacks of hypocrisy."